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Whenever the question of the relationship between religion and evil comes up, the Hallelujah Chorus are always quick to write off atheism by referring to the same "Frightful Four" - Hitler, Stalin, Mao-Tze Tung (excuse the spelling) and Pol Pot - four of the most evil individuals of the 20th Century, who "just happen to be atheists too".
According to one of these Sunday Morning religious shows, whilst discussing Tony Blair's feeble excuse that he can defuse any criticism concerning Iraq by invoking the name of the christian deity, there is a passage in Hitler's "Mein Kampf" that states that he believed he was doing the work of God...
So he wasn't an atheist after all, and we can therefore remove his name from the atheist "Frightful Four" - which leaves Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. They may have been atheists, but they were also - I'm led to believe - fundamentalist Marxists. Which facet of their "spiritual life" was most likely to influence their genocidal policies, I wonder...?
And if Blair is working according to God's wishes, then maybe Phillip Pullman is right, and God is senile.
And to anyone offended by the last sentence, all I can say is go and actually read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy - you may learn something, such as what the books are actually about.
According to one of these Sunday Morning religious shows, whilst discussing Tony Blair's feeble excuse that he can defuse any criticism concerning Iraq by invoking the name of the christian deity, there is a passage in Hitler's "Mein Kampf" that states that he believed he was doing the work of God...
So he wasn't an atheist after all, and we can therefore remove his name from the atheist "Frightful Four" - which leaves Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. They may have been atheists, but they were also - I'm led to believe - fundamentalist Marxists. Which facet of their "spiritual life" was most likely to influence their genocidal policies, I wonder...?
And if Blair is working according to God's wishes, then maybe Phillip Pullman is right, and God is senile.
And to anyone offended by the last sentence, all I can say is go and actually read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy - you may learn something, such as what the books are actually about.
